Candidates still plugging along until very end of primaries for Senate seat

Five will go in, two will come out.

A primary election on Tuesday will whittle the field of candidates in the race to fill John Kerry’s former U.S. Senate seat from two Democrats and three Republicans down to one contender from each party.

By David Riley

The Herald News, Fall River, MA

By David Riley

Posted Apr. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 28, 2013 at 3:15 PM

By David Riley

Posted Apr. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 28, 2013 at 3:15 PM

» Social News

Five will go in, two will come out.

A primary election on Tuesday will whittle the field of candidates in the race to fill John Kerry’s former U.S. Senate seat from two Democrats and three Republicans down to one contender from each party.

Democrats will choose between U.S. Reps. Stephen Lynch, D-8th, and Ed Markey, D-5th. The GOP candidates are private equity investor and former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and state Rep. Dan Winslow, R-Norfolk, a former judge.

Entering the home stretch, representatives from each campaign said their candidates would criss-cross the state trying to connect with undecided voters and get supporters to the polls while volunteers knock on doors and make calls.

While some polls have suggested Markey is leading on the Democratic side, political observers said Republican Scott Brown’s upset of state Attorney General Martha Coakley in a 2010 special Senate election showed no race is over until the polls close.

“I think you have to fight to the end,” said Maurice “Mo” Cunningham, a political science associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “There is still a chance to win it.”

The Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured at least 260 cast a shadow over the political race. Candidates temporarily suspended campaigning after the attacks.

Efforts to round up votes have resumed, but with a shift in tone. A debate between Markey and Lynch on Monday, April 22, cosponsored by WBZ-TV and the Boston Globe, often focused on national security and terrorism in a race previously dominated more by domestic matters and the candidates’ biographies.

Cunningham said the public remains focused on the bombing and subsequent manhunt, which could hurt voter turnout on Tuesday.

“It dwarfs everything else,” he said.

As he travels the state, Lynch is reaching out to a large number of Democratic voters who remain undecided, said Conor Yunits, a campaign spokesman.

“We feel very confident that a majority of those people are going to come our way,” he said.

Lynch is talking to voters about jobs, homeland security and other “bread-and-butter issues the Democratic Party was founded on,” Yunits said.

Markey’s campaign has recruited more than 5,000 volunteers for his field operation, and the candidate will keep traveling the state to get his message out, said his spokesman, Andrew Zucker. Markey will continue talking about his pro-choice position on abortion and his vote in favor of federal health care reform, Zucker said.

Lynch does not agree with abortion but has said he would not vote to overturn the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. He also has defended a vote against the final health care bill, saying it lacked key provisions from an earlier version that he did support.

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Meanwhile, Lynch has slammed Markey for votes against bills that dealt with anti-terrorism and homeland security measures. Zucker touted Markey’s background in pushing to screen airline cargo for bombs and keep knives off planes, among other things.

In the Republican race, Sullivan had planned to take his “Tested and Trusted” campaign tour to the Merrimack Valley on Thursday, to the South Shore and Cape Cod on Friday and to Worcester and the western end of the state on Saturday, said Alicia Preston, a spokeswoman for the candidate.

He planned to talk about national security, “common-sense reform” in Washington, D.C., and cutting spending, she said.

“He’s going to talk about what his message has been all along,” Preston said.

Spokesman Charlie Pearce said Winslow won endorsements from several large newspapers because he is “an ideas candidate.” Among other things, he said the lawmaker has proposed cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 26 percent while eliminating loopholes and creating a national lottery to fund education.

Winslow also planned to roll out a proposal to cut about $100 billion in wasteful federal spending, Pearce said.

“He’s a candidate who could win in June,” Pearce said, referring to the general election.

Gomez’s campaign touted endorsements from 50 “grass-roots leaders” — mainly members of Republican town committees, local officials and activists — and said broadcast TV ads would continue up until Election Day.

The candidate is talking about his credentials, his plans for jobs and proposed reforms to “reboot” Congress, spokesman Will Ritter said.

“We’re going to diners, we’re going to Republican town committee meetings, because we think that’s really where you can talk one-on-one with voters,” he said.